Here’s a second battle report on one of our Medieval games using ‘Fistful of Lead’core rules.
The Robber Knights - part deux.The setting is the quiet little village of Much Piddling-in-the-Marsh, nestled betwixt the bucolic hamlet of Lower Snatch and the small market town of Upper Snatch.
Much Piddling is held by beastly Baron Roderic Cote de Boeuf, replete with all the usual Domesday Book roster of villeins, cottagers (is that right?), pigs, orchards, woods, mills, etc. It’s a wealthy little patch in a peaceful area of the country.
Ye olde scenarioToday, Baron Roderic has set up his counting table in the village centre, accompanied by his fool, Wassa, and his part-time reeve, Bob the bumboat man (up from his ferry over the nearby River Piddle), ready to receive tithes from his tenants. He’s also awaiting the arrival of his old pal, the Bishop of Hereford, who visits once a month to pray in the church (and collect his share of the tithe).
The happy peasantry from the surrounding countryside have assembled piles of goods ready to be tithed. Bountiful quantities of produce stand around in the village – livestock, fruit and vegetables, sacks of flour, and barrels of ale and cider.
The baron is expecting the Bishop of Hereford. But he’s not expecting the arrival of several bands of lawless, roving knights, who’ve decided that in these troubled times, golden foraging opportunities must be seized with both hands…
As the morning wears on, and the Bishop of Hereford approaches Much Piddling from the North, the alarming clink and jingle of mail, harness and weapons can suddenly be heard approaching the village from different directions. To his dismay, the baron realises the sparrowhawks are circling…
From the Northwest marches a small company of ruthless Templar knights (Dr.De’Ath), while from the Northeast rides our old friend, Sir Royce Cookee (Oshiromodelterrain). These two factions have made a loose agreement to split the proceeds of their raid. Will this pax hold? We shall see…
From the Southwest comes Sir Guy de Mordant, his shields repainted that very day (Captain Blood). And from the South-East, the retinue of Sir Bernard de Winters (Malamute). These two knights have also pledged to collaborate in pillaging the village.
The objective, of course, is simply to win by pillaging way more forage than the other fellows.
Ye rulebookeQuick reminder of the rules - in this game, you command a faction of 5 – 8 figures or models, depending on the combination of troop types you go for.
The knightly leaders use a D12, are super-resilient, and you can dose them up with all sorts of specialist traits which give them an assortment of bonuses and advantages which (allegedly) makes them much more effective, and also much harder to kill.
Then at the other end of the scale you have grunts who can only take one wound, have just the one trait, and roll lowly D8 in combat and shooting. And then there are various other professional and average troop types in between (They use a D10 as standard).
A deal out of playing cards at the start of each turn determines which figure activates when. The players get dealt as many cards as they have figures, and can then decide which card to use to activate which figure.
Some of the cards bestow particular advantages, like the ability to remove a wound, add a modifier in combat or shooting, or re-roll a dice. So which card you decide to play on which figure to activate him requires careful consideration. Not just because the card you assign decides who activates and in what order (starting with Kings – aces are effectively jokers that can be used to stand for any card you like), but also to make sure the figure concerned is able to make best use of any additional ability bestowed by that particular card you choose to activate him with.
And so, on with the game…
Ye batrepA general view of the village from the South.
The baron is in the centre of Much Piddling. The Bishop of Hereford approaches with his entourage of monks.
At top left, the Templars lurk, and top right, Sir Royce Cookee. Bottom left, Sir Guy de Mordant, and bottom right, Sir Bernard de Winters.
And viewed from the east…
The ecclesiastical party approaches the village centre, carefully avoiding poor folk like Bob the Butcher - a coarse and foul-mouthed varlet who gives His Grace a mouthful of abuse for disturbing his prize pigs…
Sir Bernard de Winters, mounted on his fiery charger and accompanied by his faithful hound, Schnorbitz, leads his retinue towards the village…
Sir Royce Cookee does likewise…
As his men make their way past the outlying buildings, Sir Bernard’s troops spy Sir Royce’s men in the buildings on the other side of the main thoroughfare…
Meanwhile, Sir Guy de Mordant urges his hirelings on through the coppices and past the midden heap, to fall upon the unsuspecting hovels of the peasantry – a couple of whom are swiftly despatched with silent arrows, whilst toiling innocently in their cabbage patches.
Bumboat Bob, shaken by a stray de Mordant arrow, sounds the alarm, and – old soldier that he is – promptly abandons his liege lord and scurries off into hiding behind a hay cart to recover from this shock…
From the far side of the high street, Sir Royce’s lowly grunts start to pepper Sir Bernard de Winters with arrows and crossbow bolts…
Whilst at the Western end of the village, Sir Guy’s bowmen emerge cautiously onto the high street, loosing a couple of speculative (and useless) arrows off in the direction of the Templars…
The Templars meanwhile, set about their nefarious business. One goes off to steal Bob the Butcher’s pigs, whilst the rest tramp ominously up behind the Bishop of Hereford’s party. Are they after a doctrinal discussion perchance? I think not…
While Sir Royce canters off down the high street to have an unfriendly word in person with Baron Cote de Boeuf…
Sir Royce Cookee’s soldiers start carting off barrels of ale…
Now... Baron Roderic has a number of interesting traits, including ‘Pet’. If you have the ‘Pet’ trait, it basically means that people fighting you get distracted by said pet and thereby suffer a minus on their attack roll.
It also means that if your character suffers a wound or ‘out-of-action’ result (sometimes known as ‘death’) you can nominate the pet to take the hit instead.
The baron has a pet chimp (or is he a bonobo?) named ‘Sir Gilles le Singe’, and Sir Gilles, being a forthright simian, loses no time in letting Sir Royce know exactly what he thinks of him…
The Templars meanwhile, stage a home invasion on the cottage of Bob the bowman, intent on requisitioning his plentiful baskets of plums and apples.
Bob wastes no time in showing these strange foreigners exactly what he thinks of the idea of them handling his plums.
The Templars take exception to this insolence and fall upon poor hapless Bob, with murder in mind.
Meanwhile, across the road, Sir Royce decides to dispense with the troublesome baron and tries to ride him down, inflicting a nasty flesh wound. The baron briefly considers throwing his monkey in to absorb this damage, but then decides he values the little hairy chap too much… (Or that he’s better reserved for a more serious eventuality at any rate… Cynical).
Meanwhile, a lucky shot from the longbow of lowly Cookee minion, Audley Thorne, has felled Sir Bernard’s noble, trusty steed from under him. Worth saying, this was the high water mark of the Cookee dice rolling...
Understandably furious - ignoring the catcalls and shouts of abuse from the other side of the road - Sir Bernard, followed by his dog, trudges off up the high street to have words with Sir Royce.
Which quickly turns into a surprise rear assault…
While this high drama is unfolding amongst the mucketty-mucks, the de Mordant men-at-arms begin to gather in the loot… Scaring off the occasional intrepid peasant along the way.
At the far end of the high street, one of Sir Bernard’s men now sprints across the road and attacks the posse of lowly Cookee grunts, killing first the impudent Audley Thorne…
Then Esmond Sweete the spearman… (Really? Esmond Sweete?)
Then apparently pauses to wonder where the hell he is anyway… Or perhaps which destination sounds more appealing.
Then finding himself shot at by crossbowman, Sawyer Heade, who had sneaked off while his target wasn’t paying attention…
While Schnorbitz and Sir Gilles make friends and play (little do the poor dumb animals understand their only purpose here is to DIE!) the baron and Sir Bernard between them take down Sir Royce Cookee in a (long overdue) flurry of 11s and 12s on their d12s.
I would show you a picture of Sir Royce’s unfortunate demise, but James was sulking and took him off before the press pack arrived…
As three of the Templars carry off their loot and drive off Bob the Butcher’s prize pigs, Sir Guy de Mordant decides to seize his opportunity and charges in to deal death to the two Templars who have just finished off Bob the Bowman in his own garden…
The valiant Sir Guy (history is written by the winners, suckers!) quickly despatches the first Templar, Sir Matthew de Péronne…
Rashly emboldened by this turn of events, the choleric Bob the Butcher, hefting his cleaver, goes for the Templars himself in a desperate attempt to liberate his prize porkers from their grasping, mailed mitts.
This turns out to be a bit of a mismatch, as he comes up against Sir Chalo de Vivonne, armed with a fearsome two-handed sword, plus his expert ‘Swordsman’ trait. Yikes
Bob amazingly survives this one-sided encounter, merely collecting a couple of shock markers for his trouble. He’s pushed away by the contemptuous Templar, and has to watch his prize pigs driven from the village…
Baron Roderic meanwhile, his blood up, has had enough of seeing his demesne carelessly plundered, and despite his wound, chases after Guillame the Spear of the de Mordant faction. As well as the ‘Pet’ trait, the baron has the fiendish ‘Poison’ trait. If he can inflict a flesh wound on Guillame, the spearman has to roll every turn to see if the poison on the baron’s blade does for him.
This attack turns out to be a grave mistake however.
Setting aside his loot (as his comrades troop off with their spoils), young Guillame rounds on the baron and spears him! Death hovers close…
Alas, poor Sir Gilles! The loving little bonobo’s time has come. For now the baron invokes his ‘Pet’ trait, and little Sir Gilles is spitted upon a cruel de Mordant spear…
Wassa the Fool flaps around uselessly - having the ‘Sissy’ trait he refuses to get involved.
And thus, as Dr.De’Ath wittily pointed out, are a fool and his monkey easily parted.
Boom-tish!
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April 19, 2024, 05:47:08 AM
February 18, 2022, 03:58:47 PM